Politicians don’t understand authenticity

One of the defining characteristics of business this century is the return of authenticity. For much of the twentieth century success for large corporations was driven more by great marketing than great product. The internet, and particularly social media, opened up communications and changed that. The truth will out now. In the days of television advertising companies could control the information consumers received by buying the airwaves. We used to rely on adverts for information about products. Now we rely on reviews and social media.

Hence product quality increasingly trumps marketing and brands worldwide are embracing the need to be authentic. That is to think about the customer first and throughout.

Politicians haven’t caught up. At least in the UK.

And it’s a tragedy.

I’ve been making this argument increasingly frequently as we head towards the general election. Here in the UK, as in much of the developed world, electorates are turning to protest parties because they feel poorly served by the incumbents. In the UK UKIP and the SNP have been the main beneficiaries.

Focusing on the UK, in my view people are turning away from Labour and the Conservatives because those parties have no authenticity. They have no conviction and they don’t stand for anything. Instead they produce policies they think will extend their appeal to new voters without alienating their current supporters. As a result the promises seem hollow and people don’t want to vote for them.

This development has many causes, not least the collapse of the Keynes vs classic/monetarist economics, the rise of opinion poll politics, developments in modern journalism and the rise of the career politician. Those are some major headwinds, and they make it hard for the major parties to get out of the rut they are in.

I don’t have a solution to offer, beyond the obvious feeling that to recapture the hearts of the electorate it will take strong individuals whose primary motivation is to make a difference rather than to govern. They will have to be very strong to prevail because the party machinery is works to marginalise such people. We need these strong individuals though, because I believe we are headed towards difficult times when developments in technology will lead to massive shifts in employment patterns and, unless we are careful, worsening inequality of wealth. Steering the country through these shifts will require difficult trade-offs and hence strong leaders who can bring the country with them. Those leaders will need to be authentic.